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Remains of house and associated designed landscape. Subject to extensive fire damage in November 2015. The house was designed by William Robertson in 1837-8, with considerable additions and re-modelling by A and W Reid in 1870 and 1920. Description which follows relates to the house's condition prior to the 2015 fire: It is a two-storey, wide three-bay house, with two-storey, four-bay additions to the East (1870), and some 1920 alterations and additions. It was initially built with an entrance in the raised ground floor over the basement. In 1870, the basement was revealed and a new centre door inserted. It has a harled frontage, with rubble flanks and rear, and ashlar margins and dressings. The main house has a centre door, with a corniced and pilastered doorpiece that is flanked by narrow side windows. The centre first floor window is flanked by similar narrow lights. The ground floor windows are smaller than first. There is a shallow projecting pedimented centre bay to the North elevation, now with a later, canted, two-storey window inserted, and there is a canted bay to the West gable. There is 12-pane glazing surviving in the main front, and mainly two and four-pane glazing elsewhere. It has deep bracketed eaves, four symmetrical panelled and corniced stacks on a shallow piended slate roof. The East wing is similarly detailed, with a projecting centre bay and cast-iron balcony at the first floor on the North elevation. To the North and West of the house the 1st edition OS map shows designed gardens, with two cottages to the West of the house, with three smaller buildings around them, some with unroofed sections. On the 2nd edition OS map, the Southern of the two cottages has been extended, and there are two more small buildings shown, as well as one of the small buildings adjacent to the rear of the Northern cottage having been extended, creating an L-plan building. Again, some of these smaller buildings have unroofed sections. The small exterior building have mostly now gone, although some are shown on the map, but are disused. The two cottages are still present, and have been further extended more recently. There are the remains of a dovecot (NJ25NE0013) to the southeastt of the house within the garden, and a cup marked stone (NJ25NE0003) to the southwest, also in the garden. To the South of the house is a group of buildings, marked on the 2nd edition OS map as offices. It is a rectangular building, with an interior open court with a narrow entrance to the North-East, and a wing at the Western corner, extending to the South-West. There are three rectangular buildings to the East of the main office block, the Southern-most one of which is a cistern. The 2nd edition OS map shows the addition of a partially unroofed square building to the East of the offices. To the southeast of the house are kennels, and beyond that is a large pond, which is not on the 1st edition OS map, and is shown on the 2nd edition OS map as a curling pond, with a sluice to the East. The pond still exists, and to the South of it is a 20th century burial ground (NJ25NE0057).
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Historic Environment Records (HER) 
Moray
HER -
NJ25NE0060 - BLACKHILLS HOUSE